AP Photo by Charlie Neibergall: with a corn-clad backdrop, Lance Lynn warms up for the White Sox in Dyersville on Thursday.

The Field of Dreams game was an absolute spectacle. A living, breathing painting. For one night, Iowa was the center of the baseball universe. And in many ways, Thursday may be identified as another turning point in the ebbs and flows of the sport’s popularity. It has the potential to be that significant.

This was both hope and serendipity personified. And we needed all of it.

For those of us who were impacted in an indelible way by the 1989 movie, the meaning of this mystical event touched souls on a much deeper level. Yes, the game itself was beautiful and entertaining and dramatic. But like the iconic film, this wasn’t just about baseball for millions of Americans. If it had been, that would’ve been enough. Instead, it reached our hearts and gave us another moment we will never forget.

At one point, I was talking to my dad, texting my high school baseball coach and thinking about my grandfather in one fell swoop. A little over 30 years ago, when Field of Dreams debuted, I was a recently-transplanted Michigander trying to find my footing as an 11-year-old kid who loved baseball. I saw the film with my grandpa, we visited Dyersville later that summer, and just like that, Iowa wasn’t such a bad place to live after all. These early experiences helped make it home.

My wife and kids laugh at how emotional I get every time we watch the movie. It’s become a running joke in our household. Fire up the Field of Dreams score and I’m already tearing up.

Why? For me, it represents family. Faith. The purity and emotions of days gone by. Complex relationships clarified, at least momentarily, by a game. Memories that may not physically be touched again, but never forgotten.

Sure it’s all a little sentimental and predictable. Yet I challenge even the world’s most steel-hearted cynics to not at least feel temporarily romantic about baseball after Thursday night. And we could all use a little more nostalgia, clarity and simplicity in our lives.

Of course, Kevin Costner said it best during a pregame interview about Field of Dreams and why it still resonates with so many of us today: “A lot of it is about the things that go unsaid between us and our fathers and our mothers, or that we wish that we could take back. And somewhere along the line if you’ve had some unfinished business, that movie starts to take over. That’s maybe why you go to that place. But there’s a moment in the end (of the film) and you say, ‘my God, where do I stand … in my relationships with those I love.”

The White Sox and Yankees put on a show. The backdrop was magnificent. The weather was picturesque. The sports world spent all night – into the next day – talking about the sheer beauty of Iowa in the summer. So of course we’re all beaming with pride, knowing somehow the package exceeded expectations and built something for the future.

Many of us were able to rekindle the emotions of our past as well, though. While that is undoubtedly a complicated conversation, it also helps us feel alive on the road to closure.

And believe in the magic of the movie, the sport and life all over again.

Eric Pratt is Sports Editor at The Messenger. Contact him via email at sports@messengernews.net, or on Twitter @ByEricPratt